Nihilism
by Zise
Summary: At the end of the day, he was never meant to be walking and talking and breathing, and she was just too thought-provoking to continue arguing with. —Itachi/Ino. AU!fic.


_I was floating in the pits of blackness, unaware of anything around me, completely serene for once. The barest whisper of wind slithered over my skin, and I felt a slight sting as it passed over my cuts, gently caressing and soothing. I relaxed, and my muscles uncoiled from the tight ball that they had curled into. A sigh passed my lips, and my eyes fluttered open, trying to see where I was._

_No place on earth could be this peaceful._

_I was greeted by nothingness, and in that moment, I felt truly dead._

;;

'Baby, I'm no monster, I just lost my heart in this war.'

Uchiha Itachi, twenty-one, died shortly before the war erupted. He had died, but his soul remained, restless and discontent with the sudden end. His killer? His own beloved younger brother.

Yamanaka Ino was a spunky girl. Not too interested in the frontlines, she used her clan's jutsu to delve into the thoughts of mentally and emotionally scarred shinobi. A mind reader at her best, she is on top of the world - until a particularly difficult patient in the form of someone who should have been long dead comes her way like a raging storm.

;;

**Itachi**. Twenty-one. Supposed to be _dead_.

**Ino**. Mind reader. In charge of his _rehabilitation_.

**Karin**. Sarcastic. Confused about her _life_.

**Sasuke**. Traitor. Sick of being _himself_.

**Sakura**. Emotional. In love with the sick _bastard_.

**Naruto**. Hero. Dreams of being _more than he is_.

**Shikamaru**. Genius. Tired of _thinking_.

**Temari**. Sister. Searches for a semblance of _normality_.

;;

_nihilism,  
the sense of believing in the pointlessness of existence and the absence of truth.  
act i, chapter one._

"They're going to have to drag him in here," chuckled Karin, straightening the stack of papers on her desk absent-mindedly, reading the report placed beside the intimidating tower of papers all the while. "Poor man."

"Hmm?" Ino raised a brow, looking up from her latest magazine, her reading glasses slipping down her nose. She pushed them back up with one finger, feeling awfully nerdy.

"You know, Uchiha Itachi? The guy who we all thought was evil but was actually a freaking hero?" Karin gave her a pointed stare. "I thought you knew!"

"Oh, him," Ino waved a hand. "Of course I do! He's supposed to be assigned to our department, something about how Toriyama's squadron was excessively incompetent with handling things delicately. Otherwise, he would've ended up in building A-5."

"Toriyama's always been a bit of an obnoxious knucklehead, it's nothing new," Karin rolled her eyes, brushing her hair out of her face. She suddenly gained a hopeful gleam in her eyes, turning to Ino with her hands clasped to her chest. "D-do you think he'll let me take a look at his Sharingan? Oh, on Kabuto's fucking _grave_, I'll be the happiest woman alive if he does! Just think—I, ahem, I mean, _we_ could figure out how the accursed bloodline works if he does!"

Ino shot her a weird look.

"What's wrong with Kakashi's or Sasuke's eyes, then?" she demanded, crossing her arms, _Ten Hottest Color Combinations This Season _left lying on her desk as her attention was diverted. She adjusted the glasses again, feeling irate—new glasses that actually fit her face were the next thing for her to buy, right after that lovely compass she had seen in the antiques shop. Then again, she _had_ been borrowing Karin's glasses, and her face was more heart-shaped, as opposed to Ino's oval.

"Kakashi's not an Uchiha," Karin said matter-of-factly, giving her a 'what-are-you-stupid?' glare. "Sasuke's just being extremely uncooperative. Hmph, not like I expected any better or anything… he could use some manners, since, _you know_, you don't try to shove your hand through a teammate's chest or anything—wow, that sounded awkward."

Karin was still bitter about Sasuke, and Ino could understand why. Team Hawk had reconciled in the middle of the battlefield, for heaven's sake—proper apologies could never be made on the warzone, and Sasuke had been too preoccupied with dealing with all the problems he had left in his wake to even sleep, let alone have a heart-to-heart with Uzumaki Karin, of all the people he could've picked.

"On the bright side, at least you have a better chance with Itachi," Ino piped up, feeling a little guilty when she saw how Karin had stiffened, her jaw clenched. "He's the nicer one of the two, according to what I've heard from Sakura—oh, and can you believe it? She was one of the first few to talk to him! That little… she's not even involved in his rehabilitation!"

Karin rolled her eyes. "Jealous bitch you are, Ino. Don't tell me you're still sore over her getting promoted to Head Nurse while you're still a measly Chief Interrogator."

"Ten more days," Ino vowed, shooting her a dirty glare that could've made others soil themselves. "Ten more days, and Ibiki will be drooling after my work results, Uzumaki. You just wait. I'll turn Itachi Uchiha into the second Naruto if I have to. The Head Psychologist is my throne."

"We'll see, blondie," Karin sniggered, pulling her hair into a bun and settling herself behind her desk. "Until then, you're stuck waiting in line for coffee. Fun, huh? Especially since the coffee machine broke down today."

"God, go burn in hell."

;;

_When I opened my eyes days, weeks, months, _years_ later, I was greeted by faces I thought I would never have seen again. I was a son, I was a prodigy, I became a brother, I turned into a killer, and then I was dead. And now, I had one last chance to prove to life. To say those final lines, to have the last laugh, to triumph over the lord of death. I never was content with my doings, but now, I felt at ease. My life had just begun._


End file.
